Unlikely Angel
Cast: Dolly Parton, Roddy McDowall, Brian Kerwin, Allison Mack
Credits: Director: Michael Switzer; Writers: Katherine Ann Jones, Liz Coe, Robert l. Freedman; TV, 1996
Dolly Parton stars as a country and western singer who dies but must perform a good deed to get into heaven. She must make a workaholic man who has lost his wife realize he is losing his children and must make him see the light in time for Christmas.
Untamed Heart
Cast: Christian Slater, Marisa Tomei, Rosie Perez
Credits: Producers: Tony Bill and Helen Buck Bartlett; Director: Tony Bill; Writer: Tom Sierchio; MGM; 1993
It is the Christmas season and Tomei, a waitress in a small-town diner, is saved from a rape by Slater who also works at the diner. He is terribly shy and it takes his love of Tomei to open him up. He sneaks into her house and leaves a decorated Christmas tree at the foot of the bed. Sweet love story, but beware the unhappy ending.
A Very Brady Christmas
Cast: Florence Henderson, Robert Reed, Ann B. Davis, Maureen McCormick, Eve Plumb, Barry Williams, Christopher Knight, Mike Lookinland
Credits: Director: Peter Baldwin; Paramount; 1988
The Brady kids, now grown up and moved away, return home to spend Christmas with the family. Of course they are all unhappy and sit in the kitchen eating pie and being miserable. Marsha’s husband is out of work, Jan and her husband are thinking about splitting up, Greg’s wife and son can’t be with them, Peter is in love with his boss, Bobby is hiding his true career and Cindy wants to be on a skiing trip with her friends. But a family emergency makes them realize what Christmas and family is truly about.
We’re No Angels
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Aldo Ray, Peter Ustinov, Joan Bennett, Basil Rathbone
Credits: Producer: Pat Duggan; Director: Michael Curtiz; Writer: Ranald MacDougall (Based on the Play La Cuisine des Agnes by Albert Husson); Paramount; 1955
Bogart, Ray and Ustinov are lifers who escape from Devil’s Island on Christmas Eve. They intend to rob a store owned by a sweet family, but become so charmed by them that they stay for Christmas and begin to help the father get the store back into shape and make a profit. When all has been set in order, the three decide that rather than face the unknown world, they should go back to prison.
While You Were Sleeping
Cast: Sandra Bullock, Bill Pullman, Peter Gallagher, Peter Boyle, Glynis Johns
Credits: Producers: Roger Birnbaum and Joe Roth; Director: Jon Turteltaub; Writers: Daniel G. Sullivan and Fredric LeBow; Buena Vista; 1995
Romantic comedies returned to prominence in the 1990s, and 1995’s While You Were Sleeping, one of the more successful ones of the decade, was set during the Christmas holidays, infecting its cast of characters with an overdose of goodwill toward all men and women. Sandra Bullock, a squeaky-clean actress more cute than sensuous, turns in one of her best performances as a lonely young single out to find the man of her dreams. The movie turns out to be a feel-good movie, but one that perfectly suits the holiday season.
The movie begins and ends with Lucy (Sandra Bullock) supplying a voice-over narration reflecting on her life, past, present and future. It becomes a most effective bookend framing device to the sweet story. Lucy thinks back and remembers her father (who died a year ago) when she was a child, having adventures together, going to the church where he and her mother (dead even when Lucy was a child) were married. “Life doesn’t always turn out as you plan,” were the words that Lucy remembers most from her father, and she remembers the lighted globe that her father gave her as a child: “He gave me the world!”
Lucy, who gave up college to move to an experimental cancer treatment hospital in Chicago with her father, now works as a token-taker at a train station, where she sees the man of her dreams, even though they have never spoken. He comes by several times every week past her token booth flashing a smile or simply walking by, but for Lucy, this is love at first sight. Her boss Jerry, even though he is recommending Lucy for employee of the month, hits her up to work on Christmas day, citing she is the only single employee without family. “Did I mention the extra holiday pay?”
At home, Lucy purchases a $45 Christmas tree which is left on the ground outside her apartment, so using a rope, she attempts to lift it up to her apartment, ultimately losing her grip and dropping the tree through another neighbor’s window, offering to pay for damages while delivering her Christmas present to him.
In her token booth, Lucy, working on Christmas day, has a little Christmas tree for company. When the man of her dreams passes by this time he wishes Lucy “Merry Christmas,” and Lucy, distracted, only manages to grunt, as she hits herself in the head for missing a perfect opportunity to speak with him. She sees two men accost him near the tracks and push him over the side. Rushing out of her booth to offer assistance, Lucy jumps down onto the tracks. “Sir, are you okay... God, you smell good!” While yelling out for help as a commuter train rapidly approaches, Lucy manages to roll him out of the way as the train passes. A large bruise is visible on his forehead.
She accompanies him to the hospital. Since only family is allowed to stay with him, she allows the nurse to think she is his fiancée so she can remain to try to awaken him from his comatose state. Soon this man, Peter (Peter Gallagher), is visited by his entire family, and Lucy is introduced as Peter’s fiancée. “Too busy to tell his own father he is getting married,” the father Ox (Peter Boyle) says as he smiles at her; the family immediately takes a liking to Lucy. “I always wanted him to find a nice girl. I’m so glad it was you,” the mother Elsie (Glynis Johns) announces.
The very wise Saul (Jack Warden), a neighbor, now part of the family and godfather to Peter, tells Lucy, “I think you saved the entire family.” Soon everyone is asking how Lucy met Peter and what attracted her to him in the first place. She tries to hide her awkwardness.
Later that night, alone, Lucy goes back to see Peter at the hospital, and speaking aloud, introduces herself and tells him the entire story. She admits as a child she imagined her life when she got older, imagining the perfect apartment and cat, “But nobody I could laugh with... do you believe in love at first sight? Have you ever been so lonely you spoke to a man in a coma?” She falls asleep at his bedside and is awakened the next morning when the family returns. Since the tragedy occurred on Christmas Day, the family is planning to celebrate at their house that evening, and they invite Lucy. Deciding to attend, arriving by cab and bearing a beautiful plant, Lucy is met by Saul taking a smoke break. He tells Lucy this family is great, “They took me in as part of the family, and I wouldn’t let anyone hurt them.” The evening is just perfect, involving looking at photo albums and eating. The family even has a present for Lucy and a stocking over the fireplace with her name on it. She is totally accepted and loved.
Lucy, who is spending the night sleeping on the couch, is awakened by Peter’s brother Jack (Bill Pullman), who has just appeared and welcomes her to the family. However, in the back of his head, Jack realizes that something is askew, that Lucy is not exactly the person she claims to be. Jack comes to see Lucy at her place, and encounters the landlord’s son, Joe Junior, who claims he is dating her. Jack later visits Peter’s apartment to find Lucy there, who speaks about feeding the cat. Jack says that Peter didn’t have a cat, but one appears (actually the cat belongs to Jack’s on-off again girlfriend Ashley) and Jack is still unable to prove Lucy is not Peter’s fiancée. Leaving, Jack suggests they take Peter’s car, realizing that Lucy would not recognize it, but using Peter’s keys, she is able to activate his car alarm, identifying the car.
Soon Saul comes to visit Lucy and informs her that he was present the night Lucy confessed all to Peter at the hospital, so he knows the truth. Saul implores her to not tell the family, that they need her, for Lucy brings Peter back to life for them. Lucy asks Saul to figure out a way that she can come clean with the family, and Saul tells her not to worry.
As the days stretch on, Jack and Lucy grow closer, Jack admitting he is unhappy carrying on the family business “Callaghan and Son” (formerly “Sons” but Peter left), buyers and sellers of estate furniture. Jack, who makes homemade furniture, would love to do that full-time, but he doesn’t want to let the old man down. Finding his furniture truck blocked by two cars, he offers to escort Lucy home, both of them slipping and sliding on the ice and snow, laughing all the way. The next day at work Lucy admits to her boss, “I’m having an affair. I love Jack, Peter’s brother!” But how can she tell Jack the truth without losing him?
The story becomes even more complex when Peter opens his eyes and snaps out of his coma on New Year’s Eve. However, he has amnesia, so Lucy can still pretend she is his fiancée. In the meanwhile, Jack, who is falling in love with Lucy as well, gives her a pre-wedding present, a snow globe of Florence, the place that Lucy is most excited to visit (not having been anywhere in her sheltered life). “Can you give me any reason why I shouldn’t marry your brother?” offering Jack the opportunity to admit his love. But Jack keeps mum, remaining loyal to Peter.
However, at the wedding, Lucy “objects” to the ceremony even before it begins. “I am in love with your son... that one, not that one,” she says. In a poignant speech, Lucy confesses to falling in love with the entire family, something she never had (considering her mother’s early death and her father’s recent death) and something so much appreciated (allowing her to assume roles as sister, fiancée and daughter). “You saved my life, allowing me to be part of the family.” In shame, she runs out of the church crying.
In a sad sequence, Lucy slowly takes down her Christmas tree at home, realizing her life must change. Going to work for her last day on the job, she is surprised as Jack and the entire family appear at her token booth. Jack plunks down a diamond engagement ring. He asks if he can come inside. She answers no, not unless you have a token (which he naturally does have). Inside, with the entire family lending support, he proposes. She accepts!
Ending the movie with voice-over narration as the train with the newlyweds races away, Lucy remembers her father’s line, “Life doesn’t always turn out as you plan,” telling us that she and Jack will be honeymooning in Florence. And, just as her father gave her the globe when she was a girl, she remarks of Jack that when he gave her the snow globe, “He gave me the world.”
Interestingly enough, just like Billy Wilder’s The Apartment, the entire Christmas holiday, both the days leading up to Christmas and including New Year’s Eve, is included in such a way as to develop a blossoming love affair during the total holiday season. Even though Christmas has been over for a week by the conclusion of While You Were Sleeping, one of the last images of the movie is the sequence showing the depressed Lucy taking her Christmas tree down (as a similar sequence showed her hauling the tree up to her apartment and decorating it, at the beginning of the story). Thus, the movie is framed between the day she first puts up her tree and then takes it down, covering lots of ground in little over a week: falling in love with the comatose man of her dreams, being adopted by his family, falling in love with brother Jack, walking out of the chapel on her wedding day and becoming engaged to Jack in her token booth at work. Not to forget her honeymoon to Florence, Italy! As is true with most romantic comedies, the script contains a fair share of holes: the all-too-soon trusting of stranger Lucy by the family, Saul’s asking Lucy to continue her lies to the family he loves in order to save it, Peter simply going along and marrying a woman he does not remember nor particularly know, etc. But in spite of such plot holes, Sandra Bullock’s lonely desperation and obsession with the concept of finding love, her need to find a new family from the ashes of the one decimated by death, is as miraculous and magical as the spirit of Christmas itself. Just as in fairy tales, all good things happen to those who wait, and for Lucy, her Prince Charming has arrived as her special Christmas present, renewing our faith in the miracle of the season one more time.
White Christmas
Cast: Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Vera-Ellen, Rosemary Clooney, Dean Jagger
Credits: Producer: Robert Emmett Dolan; Director: Michael Curtiz; Writers: Norman Krasna, Norman Panama and Melvin Frank; Paramount, 1954
Critics often shrug off White Christmas as sugary fluff that is not as good as its predecessor, Holiday Inn. To which I reply, phooey. Hands down, White Christmas now and always will be my favorite Christmas movie. The songs, the love story, the glorious Technicolor, the dance routines, the shameful manipulation of our tears and the appealing leads all added up to a warm, fuzzy and delightful movie experience for audiences everywhere. I am not alone in my praise. Audiences of the time agreed, making White Christmas (which brought in over 12 million dollars) the top-grossing movie of 1954.
In the finale of White Christmas when General Waverly enters the hall and his troops come to attention, well, just hand me the tissues and allow me to wallow in my tears, soon to be followed by more waterworks as the ensemble cast breaks into “White Christmas.” My brothers and sisters and I liked nothing better than watching movies with our parents, especially our dad who was a Western and war film fan (John Wayne practically attained Godhood status in our house). Our dad had been a Jeep driver for a MASH unit during the Korean War and, although he would never talk about it, we just knew he and all the men fighting wars for our country were heroes. The sight of Dean Jagger as General Waverly responding to seeing his old division gathered before him on Christmas Eve reminds me of those simpler days of watching movies with my war hero, my dad. I’m sure that is one of the reasons this film reduces me to tears every time I watch it and, since I am incapable of taking a realistic view of this film, please allow me to gush syrupy sentiment and no criticism, for though my brain may say the film is flawed, my heart says it’s perfection.
As is the case in many movie musicals, the story is a simple one, held together by the glue of wonderful Irving Berlin songs.
The opening credits put us in the holiday spirit as the cast and crew are listed on a brilliant red background surrounded by holly leaves.
Christmas Eve, 1944. A rag-tag entertainment for weary troops is taking place. A scraggly decorated tree, a painted backdrop of a Norman Rockwellesque snow scene and a music box that accompanies Bob Wallace (Bing Crosby) as he sings “White Christmas” bring out the longing, homesickness and sadness in the faces of the men who miss their families and wonder if they will make it home to celebrate next Christmas. General Waverly (Dean Jagger) and his adjutant (Richard Shannon) exit a Jeep, with the new commander who wants to know what’s going on. Waverly tells the driver escorting the commander back to base to take the “short-cut.” Of course, there is no short-cut, Waverly just wanted the men to have a bit of fun before heading toward the front. He sneaks in and sits down.
Bob ends the show:
Certainly too bad General Waverly couldn’t have been here for this little Yuletide clambake, ’cause we really had a slam-bang finish cooked up for him. I guess you know by now that he’s being replaced by a new commanding general fresh out of the Pentagon. That’s not a very nice Christmas present, is it, for a division like us that’s moving up? The old man’s moving to the rear. That’s a direction he’s never taken in his entire life. All I can say is we owe an awful lot to General Waverly and the way he-
“ATTENTION!” is yelled. Waverly heads toward stage trying to appear gruff but can’t find the words to tell the men how he feels. He looks at Wallace.
“Don’t just stand there. How do I get off?”
“Just so happen to have a slam-bang finish, Sir.”
The men begin singing “We’ll follow the old man wherever he wants to go...,” as Waverly walks down the aisle shaking hands with his loyal troops. He reaches the back of the hall, salutes his men and rides off into the dark night. Bombing begins in earnest and the men run for cover. A brick wall falls toward Bob but he is pushed out of the way by a private, Phil Davis (Danny Kaye), who injures his arm. Bob visits Phil in the infirmary to thank him for saving his life. “Any time I can do anything for you...” he says.
Phil pitifully replies, “That’s all right Captain. I wouldn’t want you to feel any special obligation” (as he holds his wounded arm). Danny Kaye establishes Phil as a nice guy but a roguish character as he gives Bob a look with those big puppy dog eyes.
He just so happens to have a song he’s written, one he would like Bob to introduce when he gets back to the States. Bob looks at the song, “This is a duet. I work alone.”
Phil manages to convince Bob to take him on as a partner when the war is over. Of course they are a smash hit as a
duo, taking on Broadway, then becoming successful producers.
The show is just ending a run in Florida and breaking for the Christmas holidays when Phil tries to set Bob up with a dim-witted chorus girl. Bob tells him neither can go out that night, they have to take a look at a sister act. Phil’s not too happy but agrees when Bob tells him it’s a favor to Benny “freckle-faced” Haynes. “Let’s just say we’re doing it for a pal in the Army.” Phil replies, “Well, it’s not good, but it’s a reason.”
Bob is annoyed at Phil’s constant matchmaking and wants to know why he keeps trying to fix him up. Phil, trying to slow down the workaholic Bob, answers, “I want you to get married. I want you to have nine children. And if you only spend five minutes a day with each kid, that’s 45 minutes and I’d at least have time to go out and get a massage or something.”
They go to the nightclub to watch the act, certain the sisters of Benny are going to be awful. But they are pleasantly surprised when Betty (Rosemary Clooney) and Judy (Vera-Ellen) perform the number “Sisters.” Bob is attracted to blue-eyed Betty and Phil to brown-eyed Judy.
After the number, the girls sit down with Bob and Phil to thank them for coming. Phil dances off with Judy allowing Bob and Betty to get to know one another. Betty tells him they were gotten there under false pretenses. Judy wrote the letter. Bob laughs it off saying everyone’s got an angle, but this infuriates Betty. Phil and Judy think the duo is getting along fabulously and dance off into the outdoors. Danny Kaye and Vera-Ellen perform one of the most enjoyable numbers in the film, “The Best Things Happen While You’re Dancing.” The chemistry between the couple is charming (Kaye’s smiles at Vera-Ellen seem real and approving) and the singing and dancing in this number is delightful.
Danny Kaye replaced Donald O’Connor who had been slated for the role of Phil Davis but was injured. Fred Astaire (who had starred with Crosby in Holiday Inn and Blue Skies) had originally been offered the role of Phil, but depending on which history you read, either didn’t like the script or hurt himself. Either way, Kaye gives a fine performance and is at his most winning.
The girls are ending their run at the nightclub and leaving the next morning. Phil finds out their landlord is trying to hold them up for $200 for damage so he gives them his and Bob’s train tickets and helps them escape out the dressing room window and then manages to convince Bob to go on in their place while the owner keeps the sheriff busy. Bob and Phil do a funny pantomime of “Sisters” complete with feathers, fans and rolled up trousers, before climbing out the window themselves barely making the train. Phil pretends he can’t find the tickets and they are forced to sit up all night in the club car. Bob is enraged to find he has given the tickets to the girls and is ready to read them the riot act when they rush into the club car and express their thanks. Clooney and Vera-Ellen as Betty and Judy are an enchanting pair and Bob’s anger melts as he invites them to have a sandwich, which leads to Phil (with a little help from his old arm injury) talking him into accompanying the girls to their engagement at a ski lodge in Vermont. This leads to another favorite musical interlude as the group imagines a snow-covered Vermont and harmonizes on the sparkling song “Snow.”
They exit the train to 68 degrees and no snow. When they arrive at the empty inn and the girls announce they are the entertainment, Emma (Mary Wickes) tells them the inn is vacant and they will have to cancel. The owner enters, and surprise! It’s General Waverly who owns the inn. His granddaughter Susan (Anne Whitfield) lives with him. He insists the girls stay and perform, which they do to a basically empty house.
Bob and Phil decide to bring their show up to the inn to help increase business. They plan to open on Christmas Eve with the Haynes sisters filling in for any acts that can’t make it.
The first dress rehearsal is a production number revolving around the song “Mandy” and a minstrel show. Bob, Phil and Betty are dressed to the nines in black with red trimming emphasizing the stunning use of color; White Christmas is a brilliant example of the best use of Technicolor.
Vera-Ellen gets to strut her stuff with dancer John Brascia (who appeared as a specialty dancer in Meet Me in Las Vegas with Cyd Charisse and Dan Dailey) in the “Mandy” production number. Vera-Ellen was an extremely talented dancer discovered on Broadway before being signed in Hollywood. Her first two musicals were with Danny Kaye (Wonder Man and The Kid from Brooklyn), which may explain the camaraderie between the two.
Judy and Phil, both meddlers at heart, scheme to get Betty and Bob together. They arrange to have the two meet at night in the empty lodge. They sit by a fire and duet on “Count Your Blessings Instead of Sheep,” one of the original songs written for the film. The song would earn Berlin another Academy Award nomination for Best Song although he would lose to the title song from Three Coins in the Fountain. The couple manage a chaste kiss before being interrupted by the General. Judy and Phil spy through a window.
The next day Bob brings the mail to the General, who has applied for active duty in the Army. He receives a reply pretending the request was a joke, letting him down easy. Meanwhile Phil, Judy and cast are rehearsing the “Choreography” production number, a sly spoof of Broadway pretension as Danny Kaye dons a black avant garde outfit and emotes with plainly dressed chorus girls. The drab group lose the battle of dance styles to Vera-Ellen and John Brascia, whose colorful costumes and good old-fashioned razzle-dazzle tapping steal the show.
Bob and Phil agree to try to get the old division to the inn for a Christmas Eve surprise. Bob places a call to Ed Harris, a friend and fellow soldier under Waverly, and gets an appearance on Harris’ television show. Harris tries to talk Bob into televising the whole thing, but Bob doesn’t want to exploit the plight of the old man. Of course, things can’t run too smoothly. After all this is a movie, so to throw a little trouble into this Vermonty paradise, Emma listens in on the conversation and only hears a short bit, enough to convince her Bob and Phil are only doing this for free publicity. Emma spills the beans to Betty who, instead of discussing it with Bob, goes into a snit and refuses to have anything to do with him.
Judy decides Betty is in love and won’t commit to Bob unless Judy is taken care of. She convinces Phil that they should announce a phony engagement. Phil is not very fond of this plan, but Judy oozes charm and gets him to agree. That evening there is a cast party and things are as cold as ever between Betty and Bob (who has no idea what he’s done, but is really sorry for whatever it is). Phil announces the engagement much to the shock of everyone. Rosemary Clooney as Betty has the most difficult part in the film, being forced to play the uptight cold woman who begins to melt under the influence of the charming crooner, but then goes back to her frigid ways at the slightest hint of trouble. Clooney was an immensely popular singer and melds her lovely voice beautifully with duets with Bing Crosby.
The next morning Betty has the General drive her to the train station, for she has booked an engagement in New York, leaving a letter for Judy. Judy and Phil shamefully confess their scheme to Bob, who is leaving for New York to appear on the Harris show. He chides them for their silly plan, but doesn’t stay angry for long and instructs Phil to keep the General away from the television during his appearance.
Bob stops by the Carousel Club where Betty is singing. Her solo number “Love, You Didn’t Do Right By Me,” is a knock-out. Clooney wears a tightly fitted evening gown that flares out at the bottom, and she is surrounded by elegantly dressed chorus boys in this simple but stylish number.
Bob tells her the story of the fake engagement and is starting to melt a little of the ice, but Ed Harris interrupts and they leave for the show.
Back in Vermont Phil pretends to hurt his knee and, in a slap-stick bit, forces the General to walk him around until the knee feels better.
Bob makes his emotional pitch for members of the 151st Division under the command of Major-General Tom Waverly to show up at the inn Christmas Eve. Betty is watching the show and realizes how wrong she has been about everything.
Christmas Eve arrives and the train station is buzzing as old soldiers and their families arrive for this impromptu reunion. That evening the men don their old uniforms (some of which seemed to have shrunk) and Bob gives them directions.
Waverly’s granddaughter and Emma have hidden his suits and he is forced to wear his uniform. 
Susan watches with pride as he descends the staircase of the inn and proudly takes his arm. As they enter the lodge “Ten Hut” is yelled, a spotlight hits him and the General is met at the door by his old staff and proceeds to his table.
The curtains open and the strains of “We’ll follow the old man” are heard as the troops, once again led by Bob, march off stage singing. As General Waverly, Dean Jagger is at his best in this scene. The look on his face as the men line up betrays a wealth of emotion as this man is deeply touched by the love of his troops. The men line up on both sides of the aisle and Bob announces, “Troops ready for inspection sir.”
Waverly walks the line. “I am not satisfied with the conduct of this division... Look at the rest of your appearance. You’re a disgrace to the outfit. You’re soft. You’re sloppy. You’re unruly. You’re undisciplined, and I never saw anything look so wonderful in my whole life. Thank you all.”
He walks down the line shaking hands and the men break ranks and join their families for the show. Crosby and Kaye joined by Clooney and Vera-Ellen bring to sparkling life Irving Berlin’s “Gee I Wish I Was Back in the Army,” harking back to Berlin’s patriotic musical This Is the Army.
The finale is a burst of dazzling Technicolor as the leads-Phil and Bob clad in Santa suits and Clooney and Vera-Ellen in fabulous Edith Head–designed red fur-trimmed gowns-are joined by a boys chorus, red and white clad tiny ballerinas and two young boys also dressed as Santa. The stage is flanked by two large Christmas trees with another tree in the center of the stage. They sing “White Christmas” as the tree is pulled aside, the lodge door is raised and the crowd audibly sighs as they see snow gently falling outside.
And they lived happily ever after. Immigrants Irving Berlin and renowned director Michael Curtiz created an indelible piece of Americana. And we as audience can sit back with our hands folded across our stomachs feeling as full as if we have just indulged in our annual Christmas dinner, free to wallow in sweet sentiment and happy endings.
May all our Christmases be so bright.
Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? (U.S. Who Slew Auntie Roo?)
Cast: Shelley Winters, Mark Lester, Ralph Richardson, Lionel Jeffries, Judy Cornwell
Credits: Producers: Samuel Z. Arkoff and James H. Nicholson; Director: Curtis Harrington; Writers: Robert Blees, Jimmy Sangster and Gavin Lambert; AIP; 1971
Shelly Winters seems to be enjoying her over-the-top role as a sad and lonely woman who hosts an annual Christmas party for orphans in this Gothic suspense.
The Year Without Santa Claus
Cast: (voices) Shirley Booth, Mickey Rooney, Dick Shawn, George S. Irving
Credits: Producers/Directors: Jules Bass and Arthur Rankin, Jr.; Rankin-Bass; 1974
Santa has a cold and decides to take a vacation from Christmas. Mrs. Claus sends elves to find children to convince Santa how important he is.
Yes, Virginia, There Is A Santa Claus
Cast: Richard Thomas, Edward Asner, Charles Bronson, Katherine Isobel
Credits: Producer: Bob Banner; Director: Charles Jarrot; Writers: Val De Crowl and Andrew J. Fenady; Television, 1991
Christmas story of little Virginia O’Hanlon (Isobel) and her family, who are having rough times since father (Thomas) has no job. She writes a letter to a newspaper to ask if Santa Claus is real. Bronson as Edward P. Mitchell is given the job of answering the letter. He is in a deep depression since the death of his wife and has turned to alcohol to ease his pain. His reply to Virginia is now a famous part of the holiday season. Fictionalized story of true events.
You’ve Got Mail
Cast: Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, Greg Kinnear, Parker Posey, Jean Stapleton
Credits: Director: Nora Ephron, Writers: Nora Ephron, Delia Ephron; Based on the Play “Parfumerie” by Nikolaus Laszlo; Warner Bros.; 1998
You’ve Got Mail is another sweet love story from Nora Ephron. Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan star in this remake of Shop Around the Corner. Ryan owns a little children’s bookstore called The Shop Around the Corner. Hanks’ family owns Fox Books, a mega-bookstore. While the two carry on a feud, meanwhile, unbeknownst to them, they fall in love via e-mail. There is only a brief Christmas scene; the finale is a love note to New York in the springtime.